Xela and the crazy village of Zunil...

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So Thursday morning I changed my mind about going to Chichicastenango for the market and decided to take the bus to Quetzaltenango to do some exploring. It is the biggest city in the western part of Guatemala, very close to the Mexico border. It is also referred to as Xela, that is what the indigenious people call it. I was quite unsure of my decision to go here cause I really had no idea what I was going to do there, but as usual I ended up having a great time. The city centre is absolutely amazing, all of the buildings are very old and the architecture is amazing. I think my favorite place was the theatre. I have never seen such an amazing place! I got to see the inside too, and it made me feel like I was in Italy or France or something and in this old european style theatre that I have only seen in pictures and in the movies. While there, I also got to practice a little of my salsa dancing at one of the salsa clubs and enjoy some great salvadorean pupusas. For those of you who don't know what pupusas are, they are kind of like a tortilla, but have the consistency of a pancake and they are stuffed with whatever ingredients you would like, beans, cheese, veggies, etc. Then you put this spicy cabbage and onion salad mixture over it and pour a little tomato sauce over that. They are so delicious!! I also took a bus to see the village of Almalonga where most of the vegetable farms are located and also visited Zunil. Now Zunil is this mayan village in which they believe in stuff like witchcraft and also worship a statue just like Maximon. All of the Guatemalan people think that those who reside here are crazy, and their ideas and opinions are messed up. When I visited the village, it just so happened that they were having their annual festival to celebrate their own culture and town. There was this huge parade through the streets with marching bands, floats full of mayan women in traditional dress, and villagers walking about in the most bizarre costumes I have ever seen! I was so shocked to be able to witness such a thing, and I think the village people were also shocked to see a foreigner joining them for the festivities. I was the only foreigner there! I am so very lucky I took the bus there when I did, that parade was one of my highlights of my trip. The main reason I actually went to visit this place was to visit this hot spring pool at the bottom of a mountain there which is full of hot water running from a nearby volcano. I paid to swim in the pool, but you couldn't actually stay in that long because the water was sooo hot. I had to get in and out several times, but it was so relaxing to be in there, surrounded completely by nature pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
I have now just arrived back in Panajachel after three crazy chicken bus rides. The chicken buses are the local buses, which are actually old blue bird school buses from Canada that men here have painted and ''pimped out" I guess you could say. They are the cheapest way to travel, but the most uncomfortable and the most nerve wrecking. They pack them so full of people that you are squished together like sardines in a tin and they drive so fast and are passing everyone on the highway all the time. They are privately owned so of course the drivers just care about making money, not really about comfort or safety really. I only have to take two more of them tomorrow when I go to Chichicastenago, and then my next bus back to Antigua is a second class bus. It still isn't the best, but I don't have to share my seat with anyone. Anyways, now I will stay here for a couple of days to take that day trip to the market tomorrow as I had planned before and do some shopping. I really don't have a lot of time left here, in 5 days I will be back home...

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